AbstractAn effective method for the investigation of the stability for viscoelastic systems under a parametric stochastic excitation is proposed. The parametric force is assumed in the form of a Gaussian stationary colored noise. The method is based on the simulation of random processes, the numerical solution of differential equations, describing the perturbed motion of the considered system, and the calculation of top Liapunov exponents. The considered method makes it possible to estimate the almost sure stability and the stability with respect to statistical moments of the different order. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)